It’s a dream that occurs to people on vacation: How great would it be to live here?
Just as often, the dream is reeled in by the second question: How would we make a living?
Roger Blair Keeling and his wife, Carolyn, who built metro Atlanta houses as Hunter Blair Homes, were enticed by the dream in 2002 while visiting Costa Rica. They thought they had the second question answered by 2006 as they prepared to move to Nicaragua: They could build beach homes for retiring expatriates.
But what happens in Georgia doesn’t stay in Georgia.
The housing market that collapsed here and across the country slowed the flow of American retirees to Central America.
“We thought it was going to take off and be a great deal for us business-wise. But it has stalled,” Keeling said by phone.
“Internationally, it’s been an incredibly difficult four years.”
A growing number of Americans have retired overseas in the past decade for the adventure and because everything from houses to health care cost less. More than 5 million U.S. citizens live overseas, according to estimates from the U.S. Department of State. The latest numbers from the Social Security Administration say that 529,311 U.S. citizens get their checks mailed to overseas locations, including 7,322 to the Dominican Republic, 4,681 to Costa Rica and 1,826 to Panama.
Nicaragua has a smaller U.S. population with 930 checks going there.
Baby boomers, particularly, are more interested in overseas living than their parents because many of them have traveled overseas, said Kathleen Peddicord, who wrote “Live and Invest Overseas” after living in France and Panama, and like AARP, she picks Nicaragua as one of the best still-affordable, up-and-coming retirement spots.
The socialists Sandinistas overthrew the government in 1979, and U.S.-backed rebels fought a 10-year guerrilla war against them before negotiating peace. Free elections were held in 1990. The country has struggled to find its political and financial footing but has been stable.
“It is a really beautiful country, and what also impressed me was the people,” Peddicord said. “They are very, very strong people and resourceful. Everyone talks about getting together to rebuild their country. At one time, Nicaragua was a prosperous country, and there is no reason it can’t be again.”
The country put tourism-incentive laws into place that give real-estate tax breaks on development for up to 10 years. The country’s retirement incentive program is like Costa Rica’s was in the 1980s, giving retired expatiates tax breaks on out-of-country earnings.
Statistically, it’s one of the safest countries in Latin America, The Miami Herald said, with a lower homicide rate than neighboring Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras.
But the unstable U.S. economy and low home sale values have discouraged people from moving, Keeling believes.
Five years ago, the market looked good for them as they prepared to hand off their Alpharetta business to a partner and open a second home-building front. They were encouraged by their earlier experiences in Costa Rica. When they first visited, they priced a piece of beachfront property for $66,000. When they returned in 2004, that price had escalated beyond $400,000. Costa Rica is a well-known retirement country for Americans and Europeans.
They looked for the next frontier to ride a wave of rising prices and settled on Nicaragua for the availability of land, a government with growing stability and welcoming people.
The Keelings took on eight acres in the Gran Pacifica Beach & Golf Resort, backed and run by Americans, to build the Milagro del Mar condo development. He began construction of 42 condos just as the housing crisis hit the U.S., and his building has stalled. It’s tough for people in the U.S. to sell homes for a loss and move during an economic crisis, Keeling said.
He hopes to resume construction in November.
In the meantime, the Keelings opened a business that coordinates rentals for property owners and also a small beachfront restaurant, whose proceeds helped fund a baseball and softball league that became part of the International Baseball Academy of Central America. It is backed by former professional players such as Reggie Smith and Dave Stewart and will also offer educational help to students.
They are raising money to build the academy.
“Baseball is such a passion here,” said Keeling, a former University of Kentucky baseball player.
Keeling and the others want to give baseball-loving Nicaraguans a chance to develop into the next pipeline for colleges and the pro ranks.
He is full of the kind of hope that always drives developers. Success is just around the next economic corner. But his experience in Nicaragua has tempered his ideas of success.
“We originally came here because of the opportunity and we love the people and the environment,” he said. “We have a chance to give back and make a difference to this country and community, and we are still committed to that. Even if I never make a dollar down here.”
